The FunHouse Mirror Shatters

The startling revelation that Donald Trump Jr. agreed to a meeting with a woman lawyer acting on behalf of the Russian government with the incentive of getting inside information of a tarnishing nature on Hillary Clinton is dominating the news.That the 2016 meeting involving Manafort.Kushner and an invited but possibly never attending Bannon never got to campaign dirt really doesn’t matter.Donald Jr. was guilty of poor judgment,malicious intent etc. but did not commit a crime since he held no office.Kushner is a different matter;he is guilty of criminal collusion.It is also difficult to believe that Big Daddy was completely uninformed about matters taking place one floor below his penthouse apartment in Trump Tower.The acknowledged original Russian contacts were circa 2013 around the Miss Universe event but financial manipulations antedated that by at least four years.So many key operatives in the Trump administration are lawyered up and communicating only through lawyers or after advice and consent that one has to wonder whether there is a structure capable of governance in place. A new FBI chief(imminent) refuses to see the investigation of malfeasance in office as a witch hunt.Party loyalty may not keep the wheels of the clown car on as the glass shatters.

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“Those who cannot learn from their past are condemned to repeat it” George Santayana had it right.The point is to improve governance not to match its historical foibles and follies.Greed and a lust for power are universals .The so called learning curve is not the exclusive prerogative of the Trumpeter. Hold on to hats,skirts and toupees there’s a “big wind a comin”.

Yes, but what is learned and who is not learning it? This history gives us more to ponder: There is distrust of fundamental government processes and that distrust is seen to be justified. There are in the US (as well as elsewhere) two major competing interests, socialism and capitalism. One cannot advance without the compromise of the other. Belief is powerful and wishful belief competes powerfully. Major misdeeds are ignored or applauded and good deeds are slammed. What hurts the other is considered a good deed and what helps the other is considered a misdeed. News organizations that once valued objectivity have become advocates willing to dismiss information that helps the other side and exaggerates that which hinders. (CNN has registered by several studies a 93% anti-Trump coverage.) Ignoring “inconvenient” law has become routine thereby eroding a major, if not our greatest, unifying force (“living constitution” or “original intent”?). Anyone with a chance to acquire AND DISPERSE truthful information that will help defeat what is being recognized by each side as the “enemy” will do so at great risk. What is the alternative? As Daedal2207 says, “there’s a big wind a comin.”

There is much to ponder! For instance, what is “criminal collusion”? I just heard a lawyer on CBSN describe “collusion” as a general term not having much specificity in law. Maybe “conspiracy” is defined with more clarity and could apply – or not. Let’s look at a little history: There is a book written about Ted Kennedy actually arranging with then Russian leader Andropov to do dirt to Ronald Regan. In it are photo copies of exchanges so there is little reason to doubt the “conspiracy”:
“The Blogger News Network reported on October 26, 2006:
Let me cut to the chase. In May 1983, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) directed friend and fellow Senator John Tunney to meet with the Soviet KGB with a tantalizing message. Tunney was to tell the KGB to alert Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Yuri Andropov that Kennedy believed then President Ronald Reagan was a threat, possibly a military one, to the Soviet Union. Because of his worry over Reagan’s intentions, he offered to Andropov, through Tunney, to coordinate American media with the aim of undermining President Reagan with the electorate. In short, an American Senator collaborated with our arch foe in the Cold War to undermine a sitting President.”

“So says a new book by Grove City College political science professor Paul Kengor.”
“In the new book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, Dr. Kengor points to a recently discovered memo dated May 14, 1983 from Viktor Chebrikov, the head of the KGB to General Secretary Andropov. Chebrikov informed Andropov of Kennedy’s offer, made via Senator Tunney, to form a partnership to undermine Reagan foreign policy and the President’s re-election efforts. Kennedy proposed that Andropov would make a direct appeal to the American public via television interviews that would be set up in cooperation with the major networks. Kennedy’s plan never materialized due to the sudden death of Andropov and the ascendance of Mikhail Gorbachev.”

And, of course, we have the recent links between Hillary and Russia where suddenly Bill’s speaking fees reached the stratosphere, Russians “contributed” immense sums of dollars to the Clinton Foundation, and somehow Russians ended up with 20% of US uranium – but maybe the Russians were truly altruistic and there was no quid-pro-quo connection. We wouldn’t know because the major news organizations and the then Attorney General didn’t choose to show any interest. Yes, we have a lot to ponder.